A Defense of Abortion from Judith Jarvis Thomson Viewpoint and Its Criticisms

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Nowadays, there are three main viewpoints on abortion in ethical controversies:  opposition to abortion except for emergency situations, absolute agreement, and moderate viewpoint or conditional agreement. One of the important approaches among absolute or conditional defenders of abortion is the one which is based on the right of the woman to his body; in this approach the most important and influential reasoning is of Judith Thomson in his famous article "Defending Abortion". 
Thomson does not use a separate reasoning to prove his claim, saying at least in some cases like rape, abortion is morally permissible, but uses the right of the mother to his body to weaken the absolute opponents' reasoning about abortion. One of the most important criticisms of abortion is of Francis Beckwith. Problems which are presented by Beckwith are categorized under three main titles; "legal", "ideological", "philosophic". The subject of this article is the analysis of Thomson's reasoning and the criticisms of it, especially philosophic criticisms presented by Beckwith.
 

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Journal of Philosophical Theological Research
Volume 11, Issue 2 - Serial Number 42
February 2010
Pages 156-178

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